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English language body

BRAL | An urban movement for Brussels
Place du samedi 13
1000 Brussels

T: 02 217 56 33

info[a]bral.brussels

Bank account nr.: BE74 5230 8083 3007 

Get in touch with one of our staffmembers :

BRAL is a city movement striving to make Brussels sustainable.

Along with our members and partners we want to build an environmentally friendly, affordable and solidary city.

BRAL organises actions, lobbies, supports citizens' initiatives and provides advice to the authorities. Our priorities today are : better air quality, an economy that is both green and social, and an  efficient city development with room for participation.

We work in the Brussels metropolitan region, in all its social and cultural diversity.

• We are still translating all the documents that go deeper into what we do and who we are, but in the mean time, you can check our biography and mission on the Dutch of French pages of our website. 

The Brussels Council for the Environment (Bral vzw) wants to involve expats in Brussels more closely in the urban planning decision-making in Brussels. For years, BRAL as a critical Brussels NGO has been providing the necessary up-to-date information about public inquiries and consultation committees on its website in Dutch. From today, and not by chance at the beginning of the European Year of the Citizen, that tool is also available in French and English.

Via the tool, you will be able to find background information, practical details and a selection of large and small current applications for permits in Brussels.

In 2013, 20 years have passed since European citizenship originated.  The EU treaties state that each citizen in the Union is entitled to certain rights, including among others the right to free travel and establishment in other member states. In these treaties, the EU citizens obtained the right to vote and be a candidate in European and local elections. 

It is no public secret that the citizens in the EU are often not aware of these rights. “And the same is true for the ten thousands of ‘expats’ living and working in Brussels. However, their involvement in the urban planning development of our capital is required”, according to Hilde Geens from Bral. She has been following the urban planning dossiers in the European Quarter in Brussels for decades. “In the neighbourhoods around the European institutions, the local expertise and interest of these residents could bring a high added value for a variety of reasons. The neighbourhood committees, which are active in the Leopold Quarter, have been searching for some time for ways to involve their EU neighbours in their actions. This trilingual tool is of course no panacea, but it will lower the threshold to participating in the Brussels’ decision-making.”

In future, the Bral website will provide detailed information in three languages (Dutch/FR/ENG) about how and where you will be able to participate in a public inquiry, in which way to best notify your objections to the policy-makers, and how to draft a notice of opposition. A click-through map of Brussels will take you also to all public inquiries in the 19 municipalities of Brussels as well as to Bral’s critical selection of public inquiries. The translations have been carried out with the support of the King Baudouin Foundation and the National Lottery. 

By means of this trilingual tool, Bral hopes that it will also be able to reach other non-Dutch speaking residents of Brussels. According to Geens “The classical Dutch speaking or even bilingual residents’ committees no longer exist in Brussels”. “Groups of residents respond increasingly to reality and they openly play the international card. In practice, this often means also multi-lingual communication. We would like to help them out by making our expertise now available in three languages.”

In the spring of 2013, BRAL will also publish the trilingual publication ‘Battle strategies – actions by inhabitants of the European Quarter in Brussels – from 1986 until the present’.

FIND THE TOOL HERE: PUBLIC INQUIRIES IN BRUSSELS

Contact :  Hilde Geens | Bral vzw // www.bralvzw.be // staff member urban planning and Europe // Place du Samedi 13 – 1000 Brussels | T 02 217 56 33 |

Would you like to help build a sustainable Brussels in a politically independent way ? Are you interested as an individual to join BRAL, or are you a member of a citizens' committee, group or organisation in or around Brussels ? 

In that case, do join BRAL as a member! You will be invited to engaging debates and BRAL actions. We will support you in your undertakings to improve Brussels. And of course you will receive our BRAL Publications and our BRAL Newsletter. 

25 euros per year

Bank transfer to account BE74 5230 8083 3007, reference 'MEMBERSHIP FEE + name and/or organisation'

Would you like more info on the matter? Do not hesitate to send an email to christiaan[at]bral.brussels